Friday, 31st December, 2010 by Morfans and NahkahiiR
Nolans 2010 - 16:25
To make this update somehow special we have decided to give Nolan awards for all demos (some are not from 2010 but they'll be treated as such):
Castle of the Damned 2-Player Nightmare 100% in 0:51 by uN-DeaD!eThaD and BG-EKS*elenc, beating Ilkka Kurkela and Aleksander Osipov by 3 seconds.
Wins the Nolan 2010 for "Rookies of the Year". Great skills on display from the Defrag high-sensitivity mouse twitchers. It's a shame they weren't on the scene a few years back so they could have competed against The Udders, The Yanks (old and new), Les Dogs, etc.
Termination Central 2-Player Nightmare 100% in 0:51 by uN-DeaD!eThaD and BG-EKS*elenc, beating Jason Hochreiter and Adam Lewandowski by 3 seconds.
Wins the Nolan 2010 for "ID Coop". I'm still not sure just why this is faster (and I must have watched it literally three times) but I'm glad it is. It warms me through to the gametes.
Coag3_spy Nightmare Run in 0:26 by Basil de Vries, beating himself by 2 seconds.
Wins the Nolan 2010 for "Best Trick" for the slopey quad GJ. A nice demo all round from the small-headed, big-faced gibberish ejaculator. Too bad for Basil that he did not get the award for "Rookie of the Year" as he always wanted to - better luck next year!
Digs02 2-Player Nightmare 100% in 1:08 by Jaakko Alakopsa and Karol Urbanski, tablefiller.
Wins the Nolan 2010 for "Best Death" for the young Polish hate machine and razor-blade face slasher.
E4m7rmx Easy run in 0:54 by Mathias Thore , beating Paul Davies by 22 seconds.
Wins the Nolan 2010 for "Best Custom Easy Run". Remix maps usually iron out some of the more annoying aspects of the original. Usually.
Nbh Nightmare Run in 0:24 by Jaakko Alakopsa, tablefiller.
Wins the Nolan 2010 for "Demo that just sneaked in to the update at the last minute". I haven't watched this yet, I'm saving it for a new year's treat.
Rettear Nightmare Run in 0:54 by Mathias Thore, beating Daniel Lindberg by 2 seconds.
Wins the Nolan 2010 for "Overall demo of the year". It's monster dodging mayhem from the plucky Swedish goat-botherer. A reminder of what real skill is. Crowded NR bunnyfests like this were always my favourite demos to see from Martin, Peter, Ken, Ilkka, Evan, Joe, Attila, Justin, Markus, Daniel (various Daniels), Finbar, Corky, Weasel and Susan.
Sm155_trinca Nightmare Run in 0:05 by Mathias Thore, tablefiller.
Wins Mandel another Nolan 2010 for "Shortest demo of the year".
Toa 2-Player Easy 100% in 1:34 by Paul Davies and Jaakko Alakopsa, tablefiller.
Wins the Nolan 2010 for "Best Coop Easy 100 on Normal Skill as the Amazon and Sorceress". Not quite sure how this one got in there, but we try not to discriminate here at TeamSDA.
And we will round of the year with the "Living Legend" award. This goes to a guy who used to make occasional appearences on this site when certain lazy updaters were looking for a cheap laugh. He kindly sent a few words in in honour of his award. Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr Jokus Horlinus.
"Hi guys! Since I last speed ran the Quakes I have moved on and am now Professor of Love here at Findengary University. In my work here I have brought intimate pleasure to over 470 girls and 4 clean-limbed young men (hey! We don't like to exclude or judge!). I could never have got this job if not for the skills I aquired speedrunning. Not the finishing as quickly as possible, of course, but the more important things like excrutiating attention to detail and the patience and willingness to repeat the same moves hundreds and hundreds of times in order to bring it off. So keep up the good work, guys. I can personally guarantee that speedrunning will make you the greatest lovers in the world. CHEERS!"
Thursday, 18th December, 2009 by NahkahiiR
Delay is our specialty - 01:40
At first we proudly present you a hipnotic demo on hipend. It's a Nightmare Run by the rocket boosting specialist Mathias Thore who beat Robert Axelsson's over 7 years old demo by 1 second. This 0:29 is a very sweet demo.
It's time for some action in coag3_rickyt23 which was conquered by Rutger Baks. First he beats my Easy Run by 1 second to a 0:22, then improves it by another second to 0:21.
Then he switches the skill to Nightmare and does 0:22 and shaves another second off that one too - 0:21. Nice bunnies.
Coag3_spy is another great map from the third coagula mapping contest. It deserves a great demo and Basil de Vries is the right man to Run this map on Nightmare. This 0:28 includes a cool (or shall we say, burning HOT) quadded grenade jump!
It's Laurent Mertens' turn to show how the art of speedrunning is mastered. He recorded the Easy Run on the beautiful yet brutally named map called death! However, this journey ends in 1:41 (tablefiller) and the brave runner is ready for some more challenging missions in the future.
The next demo is not work safe because it's time to bust some heads when Weixing Ye enters the world of wot. In the Nightmare 100% he leaves only bodies behind and beats Laurent's demo by 3 seconds, exiting in 0:22.
I recorded an Easy 100% demo on an awesome map called gmsp3. I love to make long demos so here is 6 minutes and 49 seconds for your pleasure (beating Thomas Stubgaard by 43 seconds).
Some competition takes place on zooloo. The Easy Run slot received a tablefiller from Rutger who got a 0:20. That didn't last too long because Flavio Quadros also liked to test his wings on that map and got a 0:18, 2 seconds faster. Will Rutger fight back?
Well, not for now as Rutger moves on to the Nightmare Run and finishes in 0:20 (tablefiller).
The last single player demo in this update is Rutger's Easy 100% which takes 38 seconds to complete the map (tablefiller).
COOPS!
Basil did not stop his demo streak on coag3_spy but he dragged me along. First we did the Easy Run - 0:27 stands as a new record (single player time 0:29). Poor monsters have to face their fate again - to be destroyed in the Easy 100% that is completed in 1:04 (tablefiller).
Next map is q1tm2_czg where I teamed up with Paul Davies to make this fun filled Easy 100% in 1:29, tablefiller (single player time 1:57).
The last demo of the update was made on sm155_negke. It's another round of Basil's endeavours with me. The Easy 100% took us no longer than 0:26 which is a tablefiller (single player time 0:34).
I hope it doesn't take another 1.5 months to have the next demo update. That means it's up to YOU how soon it happens. Go record demos of pure awesomeness!
Monday, 30th November, 2009 by Stubgaard
The Results Are Up - 18:34
Sunday, 8th November, 2009 by Stubgaard
Championship 2009-2010 - 20:54
Aaaaanyways, as mentioned above, a new Championship round has seen the light of day and the first contest is taking place on this map (sm48_czg.bsp) by Christian 'czg' Grawert. There's a little twist to the contest though, you have to use a special 'collectathon' progs that comes with the map. The link will also bring you to the rules section and the Championship ladder.
Have fun running.
Wednesday, 28th October, 2009 by NahkahiiR
Demo machines - 23:10
Basil de Vries is the first one of those maniacs! The map that was introduced first 3 days ago, gets the first mentioning today as well, that's 1000zwei. In the Easy Run he takes it cool and does a vore ball boost to fly high and finishes the map in 0:56. The Nightmare Run is a lot more interesting, that death knight boost is quite unusual. That speeded him to a 1:29.
Basil attacked the Easy Run of blitz1000 and did it quite well, performing a cool ogre grenade jump. He is the mastah at them. The journey didn't take very long, 31 seconds! All tablefillerz!
Now who is the other maniac? It's me of course! When the awesome map coag3_rickyt23 was released in April, I was asked to record some demos on it. 3 tablefillers were made:
Next up, another cool map of the third coagula mapping contest - coag3_spy. Here I recorded the Easy Run in 0:29. Pretty good imho.The last map which got single player demos in this update is toa. Once again I started with an Easy Run, managing to exit at 0:50. But Basil used his brains a bit more and found a better route which made him 10 seconds faster than me, finishing in 0:40. Looks good! My last single player demo comes in the form of an Easy 100% on the same map. Maybe not the best route choices but this 2:04 doesn't look bad at all.
Okay time for coops of these two freaks. 1000zwei is popular map now, almost a ton of demos like the name says. Well not really, just two extra coops were made, the Easy Run in 0:43 and Nightmare Run in 1:06. Lots of wind tunnel riding there...
Fmb6 turned out to be a fun level. There is possibly a faster route than what we used now but it was difficult to execute with high ping and lag. Maybe some other time. Anyway, the Easy Run took us 0:46 and Nightmare Run 0:55.
The last unpolished diamond of a run took place on zooloo. While recording the Easy 100% we noticed that grunts were cunts and scrags were nags. Also the fiend wasn't a friend and... damn I can't think of how it would rhyme with other monsters. The ogre is damn stupid that's for sure. After all those challenges, we got a 0:28.
That's all folks, there are still a lot of holes left so keep on running!
Sunday, 25th October (2nd update) by Stubgaard
A Mixed Bag Of Maps - 9:20
Sunday, 25th October, 2009 by dex
It's all about having coops - 00:15
Sadly, there are no id runs, but Dane Plachetta tries to make up for it with a really good hipnotic demo, specifically with a hipdm1 run. Beating the previous Easy 100% from Denis Nazarov by 2 seconds, Dane beats the level in mere 0:31. And yes, his fast mouse movements ARE amazing. Definitely a worthwhile watch.
Another lone player in this update is Laurent Mertens, who ravaged his own wot Nightmare 100%. 0:25 is the time, and it's an improvement of 2 seconds. Never before have so many shamblers died on Nightmare in so little time.
Finally, it would seem NahkahiiR might have to give up his 'demo machine' pet name. Enter the contender for the title, Basil de Vries! All the remaining SP demos are his, and boy, did he make them look good! alk08 Easy Run by Jaakko proved to be no problem for him to beat by 13 seconds. 1:11 is all it took.
His tablefiller on grenades shows some incredible skill. This Nightmare 100% is only 8 seconds long, and what did he do to get this time? Well, he used a double ogre grenade jump, obviously! Daaaaaaamn. The Easy 100% jjf also has a few badass boosts and travel at a 4-digit speed. 0:16, which is bad news for Laurent Mertens, who previously had 0:24 here.
Finally, sm155 maps have two more demos. sm155_trinca gets an Easy 100% done in 0:17, a single-second-self-improvement. And Daniel Hansson's Easy Run on sm155_zwiffle fell victim to the unstoppable Gibberish Master, who improved it by 4 seconds (yielding a time of 0:19). Very good work!
Finally, a bunch of coops. Most of them are from the famous Mathias Thore and Thomas Stubgaard, and let me tell you, those are definitely some damn good demos (even if they tend to be on the short side). So, in the classic bullet style:
Also, Basil de Vries and Jaakko Alakopsa made a 2-Player Easy 100% of sm155_zwiffle. Finishing the tablefiller in 0:49, they are 10 seconds faster than the single player demo. Good work, too.
See you next time!
Saturday, 10th October by NahkahiiR
It's all about having fun - 21:26
At first we got one hipnotic demo from Dane Plachetta. He improved his own hip1m1 Easy 100% by 5 seconds to 1:04. His fast mouse movements are amazing. Very good.
Alk08 turned out to be a very interesting map, much potential for awesome demos. Laurent Mertens started the roulette with an Easy 100% demo, casual playing took him 4:54. I was going to beat Laurent's demo and accidentally found a way to do the Easy Run so I did that first, 1:24 looks good but still has flaws in it. Then it was time for the Easy 100% as I beat Laurent by 123 seconds and got this 2:51. Finally, Laurent recorded the Nightmare 100% in 6:38. Quite careful playing. Be brave next time!
Gibplex has a weird history in this reality. Some time ago Richard Skidmore "improved" the Easy 100% from 0:51 to 1:23 by killing the hidden fish. Now Nathan Egan saw that Richard's demo was not good and made a much better 1:04 (19 seconds faster). But he wasn't happy with that and later improved it to 1:01 beating himself by 3 seconds.
Time for some Nightmare Running in grenades! Mathias Thore was the brave soul who attempted it and did it in 6 seconds!
In the strange world of jjf, 3 single player demos were made. Laurent began his journeys on this map by filling the Easy 100% table in 0:24. Then Lorrymorry moved to the Nightmare 100% and got this 0:43 which was later improved by Basil de Vries to 0:24, 19 seconds faster. Orbsified!
Basil polished his grenade launcher and brought it to sm155_trinca where he improved Rutger Baks' older Easy 100% record to 0:18, 2 seconds faster.
Now for the last map with single player demos, it's wot that we all know so well from the contest not long ago. Lorrymorry made the first move once again. The Nightmare Run saw the moonlight with this 0:03 tablefiller. Hmm? Doesn't that scream for an improvement? Yes it does, and it was Thomas Stubgaard who optimized it! So rare to see him playing any other than iD maps and now you get to see 2 seconds of action! YAY! Laurent finally becomes brave and powerful when he finds out that he is immortal. No shambler is a match to him when he finishes the Nightmare 100% hole in 0:27.
Did someone say coop? Oh yes, I teamed up with Orbs to record a bunch of tablefillers. Thanks to the high ping that I had, even the easiest maps became quite challenging but here is the list of what we managed to run within 3.5 hours:
That's all this time. Don't forget to record more demos. Every one of them are welcome.
Tuesday, 6th October by Stubgaard
Oldies - 3:41
Let's start with the new map (which is in fact an old map from 2001). It's by Shaun 'Kona' Ross, and it's called alk08 - Charmhood. Call your demos alk8.dem
And then we have all the oldies:
Friday, 2nd October by Stubgaard
The Shambler's Cube - 2:50
Wednesday, 23rd September by dex
A Rare Commodity - 2:50
One kind of demos we lack lately is marathon demos. Trying to combat that low supply of endurance based demos is Laurent Mertens. He took care of the pse episode, specifically the Easy 100%. The record held by Richard Skidmore has been significantly improved (by 2 minutes and 42 seconds), and this 13:45 is the result of Laurent's endeavours. He really got himself going and submitting demos lately, a most commendable attitude.
Another kind of demos that we're kinda lacking are hipnotic demos. Enter Dane Plachetta, who took it upon himself to supply us with some rad demos. hip3m2 was his first target, and it took him just 1:46 to beat the Easy 100% by 4 seconds (previously held by Amrik Kochhar). Another Easy 100% he ran was on hip3m4, and this is a more palpable improvement: 16 seconds faster than Nolan Pflug, for a time of 1:53. Hypnotising!
e4m7rmx is a popular map in this update. One of the hugest maps in the archive, it takes a while for a Nightmare 100% to be finished. That didn't scare Nathan Egan off, and he made a tablefiller, finishing the level in 6:53. Then, Jaakko Alakopsa decided to improve that by 146 seconds, which makes the final time 4:27. A little bit of healthy competition.
sm155_negke got a run from Daniel Hansson, who decided his old Nightmare Run was not up to par. The resulting session of speedrunning ended up with him getting a 0:15, which is an improvement of 3 seconds. I love this route, by the way.
Rutger Baks did a few tries on the Easy 100% of sm155_trinca. First he improved Nathan Egan by 3 seconds (0:22), then he shaved 2 more seconds off for the final time of 0:20. Quad grenade launcher means destruction!
Finally, Mathias Thore made a demo on imp1sp2. Specifically, he beat the Nightmare Run by The Gibberish Machine Known As Basil de Vries, and he beat him by no less than 4 seconds, which pushes this demo 2 seconds under a minute (0:58). Speaking of Mathias, check out the other demos page, for he has taken the FIRST PLACE on the e1m1 bunny comparison - an astonishing time of 21.63!
By the way, there were a few updates to the player profiles on the site: Stub, Mathias Thore, Flavio and you can also see my ugly, ugly mug. If you have demos on SDA, you can add/update your profile here: template; and send it to the SDA mail.
Wednesday, 16th September by Stubgaard
The Shambler's Cube - 13:25
Remember to visit our YouTube channel. New videos gets uploaded regularly.
That's all for now.
Tuesday, 1st September (2nd update) by Stubgaard
The Pflug Speaks - 08:55
On another note, a regular here at SDA started writing the Quake Knowledge Base. It's nowhere near finished though, so any help is greatly appreciated! There's a thread on the forum with list of things to add and such, click here to read.
Tuesday, 1st September by NahkahiiR
Steady flow of demos - 00:18
Thank you gentlemen, applauses can stop for a little while. Save them for this man - Nathan Egan. He is the new demo machine with 8 tablefillers. Let's check them out. At first we will have a look at sm155_ankh where he did the Easy 100% in in 1:35. Then he did the same in Nightmare, killing every monster and stepping to the exit portal at 1:47 in the clock. Too bad he didn't have much chance when Thomas Bergendorff brutally destroyed Nathan's records by 0:55 in the Easy 100% and 1:06 in the Nightmare 100%. 40 and 41 seconds improvements. Rutger Baks wanted to show Daniel Hansson who is the real man and improved the Easy Run by 1 second to a 0:18.
Then we move on to sm155_negke which has turned out to be quite a fun level. Interesting gold door, isn't it? Anyway, Nathan cut through everything in the Nightmare 100%, finishing in 0:44. Flavio Quadros puts the door in good use in the Easy Run and does it in 15 seconds, beating Daniel Hansson by 3 seconds! Very cool demo! The only coops in this update took place on Negke's map and were done VERY QUICK by Pif de Mestre and Luc de Mestre. Easy and Nightmare Runs on the cheap way, 2 seconds both! Luc's part must be the easiest in the SDA's history, press one button and stand there for 0.2 seconds. Even a goldfish could have done it! Congratulations! No, I'm not saying that Luc is a goldfish.
The previous contest map, sm155_trinca received 4 demos but only 3 were accepted. First Nathan tossed a quadded pineapple at the nasty vore in the Nightmare Run, 10 seconds of action. Then Mathias Thore skipped quad, and bombed the vore with more pineapples and flew to the exit line in 0:06, beating Nathan by 4 seconds. A bit later, Rutger submitted another 0:06, but that's not a new record. The demo is included in the big dz/zip anyway. As a farewall to the map DrWorm sliced some flesh in the Easy 100%, exiting at 0:25.
Another map that would need traffic lights for new demos is sm155_zwiffle. Once again, Nathan started busting heads and let his weapons sing. Quite short for a song, but this Easy 100% in 1:37 is fun to watch anyway. Add one second, and you get a Nightmare 100%, done in 1:38. But don't start jumping of joy just yet, unfortunately these demos were beaten. Thomas took the Easy 100% in his claws and the Swedish tunnelbana shaved 38 seconds off of Nathan's demo and 0:59 now stands in the tables. I watched Thomas' demo and tried to copy him failing in it. Still I beat Nathan's Nightmare 100% by 28 seconds. The time I got is 1:10.
E4m7rmx had been an unconquered mountain for a long time. But now those times are over because the bravest of all men - Nathan Egan made monsters want to kick a bucket but they were too slow for that. When the bodycount reached 88 in the Easy 100%, only 315 seconds had passed. Keep up the good work!
Sunday, 23rd August by Stubgaard
New Maps Equals New Demos - 10:44
Let's start with the demos on sm155_negke which seems to be the most popular of the new maps:
Stubgaard is signing out...
Saturday, 22nd August by dex
Did someone say 'maps'? - 6:55
Before I talk about the demos, however, I'd like to present you with some more maps for your running pleasure, all from the Speedmap pack 155:
Now, because sm155_trinca was a contest map, we understandably have two categories filled already. Both of the winning demos were done by Flavio Quadros. His times are 0:05 for the Easy Run and 0:17 for Nightmare 100%. Once again, congratulations for besting your opposition!
Flavio also adds one additional demo to this update. He picked bc2 as his target, and improved the Easy Run. 0:33 is enough for an improvement of 2 seconds over Fabian Kollakowski, but it's also an improvement over an invalidated demo from Dmitry. So, props for actually going as far as to improve the invalidated time.
Funnily enough, this next demo has something to do with Flavio as well, however this time he's just the mapmaker. deja is a mix of parts out of different id maps, but Mathias Thore evidently isn't mixed up. He finished the Nightmare 100% in 1:52, beating Richard Skidmore by 10 seconds in the process. Always nice to see Mandel kill stuff efficiently.
He's not the only of the SDA veteran runners and staffers to do runs for this update. Another such person is Thomas Bergendorff, who made not one, but two demos. He did some tablefilling on r_noname, specifically, he plugged the Easy 100% hole with a 0:27. Besides that, he ran sm135_ankh, and beat Rutger Baks' Nightmare Run by a second, getting 0:08. I guess he is out of retirement, nice demos!
To top single player demos off, Daniel Hansson does a Nightmare Run tablefiller on ksp1. He finishes after 98 seconds, with a nice scrag surf included in the demo. I'm thrilled to see this runner do demos again, as well.
Now, coops. And let me just say this, this is a one in a liftime... alright, one in 5 years opportunity. You see, Tim Doherty decided to do some coops. That would be awesome by itself, but he upped the ante by doing the running with the founder of SDA himself, Nolan Pflug! This duo did three runs, and they did them on the expansion packs:
Now if such a comeback isn't badass, I dunno what is. Wouldn't mind seeing even more ;).One last thing, a couple updates ago a Nightmare Run slower than a Nightmare 100% was mistakenly accepted. Sorry for the confusion, Laurent, hope you don't mind :). See you all next time, and have fun running the new maps!
Thursday, 20th August by NahkahiiR
Game over - 17:55
Saturday, 15th August by Stubgaard
Insert Something Clever Here - 20:47
Let's kick it off with r_noname.
Pif and Luc improved their Easy Run of ksp1 in 1:11, beating themselves by 1 second.
And finally we have an old demo from 2007 (which had gathered dust on Basil's harddrive apparently) on deso courtesy of Jaakko and Basil. They improved Pif and Luc's Easy 100% demo by 12 seconds to 1:03.
Unfortunately we've been forced to delay the contest for two days as NahkahiiR (in the midst of moving to a new place) forgot his powercabel for his laptop, and won't be able to pick it up until Tuesday. So, new deadline for the contest is Wednesday, August 19th, Midnight CET.
Also, it's worth mentioning that there's been some demos recently (over a timespan of a year give or take) for the Other Demos page, most notably new number one records on the 100m map, e2m1 and e4m5.
Stay happy...
Monday, 10th August by Stubgaard
Laurent For The Win - 00:36
Starting out with ksp1, we have Thomas Bergendorff 're-retiring' from speedrunning with these three beautiful demos on a beautiful map.
And to round the update off, we have a coop demo by the long lost Frenchies, also known as Pif & Luc de Mestre. They did the 2 player Easy Run of ksp1 in 1:12. Tablefiller (single player time 1:36).
Remember to submit your entry/entries for the contest. Deadline is Monday, August 17th, Midnight CET. Also, remember to check out our YouTube channel, quite a few new videos have been uploaded.
Tooodle-ooo...
Sunday, 9th August by Stubgaard
Rutger Baks Makes A Map For SDA - 16:55
Monday, 3rd August by NahkahiiR
RRRRRRRUUUUUUNNNNN!!!!!! - 22:05
Saturday, 1st August by Stubgaard
A Demo Update As Promised - 16:06
First things first. It turns out I was wrong about not being able to get all 8 secrets on ksp1. Pif de Mestre showed us how it was possible, so give it up for Pif for paving the way. And give it up for me for being a moron :-)
Jaakko Alakopsa went on a self-improvement rampage and improved his Easy 100% on e3m5rmx by 44 seconds to 2:40. Yay.
Mathias Thore is back in high gear with an optimized demo on runthis. He somehow managed to avoid being killed by jumping Fiends and backstabbing Ogres to get a 1 second improvement for the Easy Run, beating Thomas Bergendorff by a narrow margin to get 0:06.
When we removed Dmitry Dementjev's demos from the tables, we also ended up with quite a few new holes, unfortunately. Some of his records were from previous contests he won, so we've decided to add the 2nd best demos from those contests to the tables instead.
Mathias visited me a few weeks ago, and we teamed up for a few id coops, two semi-id coops, one custom coop and one single player from Mathias.
That's all for now. A new contest is due soon.
Friday, 31st July by Stubgaard
Contest results - 13:06
Click here for the contest results. A video of the winning demo can also be found on the results table.
Note: It turns out you can only get 7 out of 8 secrets on ksp1 (one of the new maps we added recently). It's my fault for not checking the map thoroughly before adding the damn thing. We'll keep the map in the archives though, so if you want to submit a 100% demo, just make sure you find 7 secrets (and all kills of course) :-)
A demo update should follow shortly.
Monday, 27th July by Stubgaard
QuakeSDA @ YouTube, FaceBook and Mininova - 16:45
Sunday, 26th July by Stubgaard
New Maps, Hoooray! - 17:15
The three maps in question are:
Wednesday, 22nd July by dex
Happy birthday! - 23:21
I bet you want to read what demos are included? Well, in a moment. First, the rest of the 'other things', mostly of note to all the people that want to start running Quake. We have a Getting Started page up, which will be revised more in the future, but provides the basic info you need. Everyone that wants to make runs or wants to watch them should go here. Also, a few of the downloads I'll mention now... I've made an eye-candy pack for all of you using joequake-gl.
Of course, the installation process of Quake these days can be pretty hard. Getting all the maps, joequake etc. installed can be a pain in the ass, so for your convenience, we have made an easy install pack in two flavours: light version and a large version. Note that parts of this download are still (c) iD. You SHOULD own a copy of Quake to use it, if you don't, buy one from the store. Of course, if any iD representatives do not want these packs posted on the website, send an e-mail to quake [at] speeddemosarchive.com and the packs will be taken down immediately.
Now, demos! The good, ol' mister Thomas Stubgaard bested... himself on another id map. This time it's The Dismal Oubliette. The 'id machine' has a tendency for long, bloody Nightmare 100%. This demo is a very long and a very bloody Nightmare 100%! Stubby gets all kills in 7:46, which is a significant improvement of 65 seconds. MUST DOWNLOAD!
Another machine has been making some runs. This one is a 'demo machine', Jaakko Alakopsa. Come to think of it, his contribution of mere 6 demos pales in comparison with what the American Duo/Trio did... but it's still an impressive amount of additions. The p_se_4 map got both the 100%s improved. Jaakko did the Easy 100% in 2:58, beating Justin Fleck by 6 seconds. Justin Fleck also suffers in the Nightmare 100% category, suffers exactly 5 seconds of improvement by Nahk, to be specific. Fetch this 3:33.
Another map Jaakko ran is e4m1rmx, and again the targets were the 100%s. The Easy 100% was finished in 129 seconds, which beats mister Basil de 'gibberish machine' Vries by 17 seconds :). The 100% on "skill 3" took 2:44, and it's a much more substantial improvement of 73 seconds - over Michael Hudson this time.
And finally, there's also a nice, new Nightmare Run on msacro, beating the previous effort by Philip Chute by 3 seconds, yielding a time of 0:18.
Mathias Thore, known as the 'nice, pretty demos machine' also made a demo! The compugib map Nightmare Run got the Thore treatment, and as a result, 1 second has been chopped off Aleksander Osipov's run. Go get this 0:30!
Rutger Baks, the ....'I-can't-think-of-a-good-way-to-describe-him-as-a-machine machine' did several runs himself. The dragon Nightmare Run got improved to 0:21, a 2 second gain over Jonathan Lenhardt. He also took a stab at jailbrk Nightmare Run, done the cheap way. He beat Mathias Thore by 2 seconds and got 0:03. Probably optimal, congratulations!
That's not all from him yet. He improved both runs on e3m5rmx. The Easy Run is an improvement of 1 second over Jaakko Alakopsa, 0:53. The Nightmare Run is just a tablefiller, and Rutger finishes in 1:00. Finally, he did a sm135_ankh Easy Run in 0:11, tablefiller again.
Coop time! Most of them by Jason Hochreiter and Adam Lewandowski, the 'coop machines'. If I wrote comments for them all, my fingers would fall off, so I'm gonna go cheap here. One coop has to be highlighted, though, and it's by Thomas Stubgaard and Mads-Peter Stubgaard. They made a 2-Player Nightmare 100% on The Dismal Oubliette. Finishing in 6:55, they're actually 8 seconds slower than themselves, but they get all kills this time!
That's all. Oh wait! Go run the contest! Now that's all.
Wednesday, 15th July by Stubgaard
Shambler Hell (Re-visited) - 18:44
The map in question is Shambler Hell by Evan Wagner.
A humongous demo update will follow soon-ish, plus some other stuff we've been planning.
Saturday, 30th May by NahkahiiR
No bullet style but good style - 19:00
All of them are coops. And done by whom? The most active coop duo in the present day - Adam Lewandowski and Jason Hochreiter. Let's start with two iD coops.
Tuesday, 26th May by dex
Manslaughter - 21:00
This is because I have some very important and very serious news. As I'm sure many of you know, single-player Quake clients have an FPS cap on 72 frames per second. No matter how good your computer is, that's what the FPS will stop on. As all people well versed in the Quake engine know, framerate directly impacts Quake's physics, most importantly making wall-hugging, bunnyhopping, rocketjumping and swimming faster. However, thanks to the FPS cap, everyone is on a level playing ground.
Unfortunately, we have very recently discovered that some demos from one of the runners exceed that FPS cap, giving him an unfair advantage. The runner in question is Dmitry Dementjev, and a total of 18 of his demos, made around 2006-2007 have an average framerate of about 85 frames per second. We feel such an 'oversight' can pretty much only be attributed to using a modified version of the engine or another shady method.
As such, I regret to inform that the SDAQuake staff has decided to purge all of Dmitry's demos from the archive. Someone might say 'it could be serious negligence, give him a second chance'. This might have been the case for someone with a different history, but Manslay is a repeat offender. He was caught cheating *twice* before 2006, and was given not only a second, but also a third chance. Because of that, the SDAQuake staff members feel serious punishment is necessary.
It is even more frustrating because Manslay has made some good runs. However, we cannot tolerate breaking the rules.
This also means that there are a few more tablefillers and a few less optimal demos, and they are up for replacement. (ne_dust2 springs to mind). Also, the contest winning ssnw Easy Run and Easy 100% demos have been replaced by the (respectively) 0:19 by Flavio Quadros and the 0:53 by Adam Lewandowski. Also, Mathias Thore made a replacement for the end_pre Nightmare Run - equalising the likely optimal 0:09.
Keep to the rules, people.
Saturday, 23rd May by dex
Coop overflow - 02:35
As usual, single-player goes first, starting with my fellow staffmember Jaakko Alakopsa. He took it on himself to improve the Easy Run on a map I really like: sm82. Despite a few shortcomings this 2:48 is a worthwhile watch. It's a self improvement of 17 seconds.
Also, our gibberish master Basil de Vries sent us a very nice Easy 100% of msacro, showing just what a Dutchman can do. He finishes the run-through in just 57 seconds, which is a minimal, 1 second improvement over the old record by Adam Lewandowski. Oh, and he didn't commit any mistakes during the submission! ;)
Speaking of Adam Lewandowski, he seems intent on dethroning the old Demo Machine, Jaakko Alakopsa. He's already managed in the coop department, but Jaakko still holds the lead in the single-player department. So, Adam submitted several SP demos this time. First one is a Nightmare 100% on the aforementioned msacro, finishing in mere 1:20, good 60 seconds faster than Philip Chute. That's one minute, yes.
Then, Adam shifted his attention toward mortal, specifically to the Easy 100%. He beat the previous record holder (Nahk) by 2 seconds, sending in this 0:56. Good work.
Finally, wrapping the single-player section, Relomy did 2 runs on sm94_zwiffle. He improved the old Easy 100% by Jaakko by no less than 7 seconds (1:07), and the Nightmare 100% is an 11 seconds improvement (1:06), again faster than Jaakko. Good demos, those. Bloody good demos.
However, 'update with demos by Adam Lewandowski' is associated with 'update with many coop demos'. This one's no exception, and so here comes some bullet style mentioning of demos by Adam Lewandowski and Jason Hochreiter. I feel the need to specifically point out that this duo has made an id coop, however. They tackled the 2-player Easy Run on The Elder God Shrine, beating Martin Selinus and Anders Nordensten by a single second to get 0:32. Congratulations, great work! So, here comes the rest - make no mistake, though. Even though I'm too lazy to write comments, they're great stuff, so go watch!
Additionally to those runs, Jaakko Alakopsa and Basil de Vries teamed up for a coop of sm28; specifically for the 2-player Easy 100%. It's a tablefiller (sp time 4:20), but nevertheless, they tried to make it a good record and the result is this 2:22.
Finally, still on that same map, Adam Lewandowski and Jason Hochreiter went stark raving mad, and got Benjamin Dellinger to join in, who to my knowledge is a new player. They went for the 3-player Easy Run and the 3-player Nightmare Run. Both the ER3 and NR3 are 0:20. Both are a 7 second improvement over Pif, Luc and Raymond de Mestre. Good work, and I welcome the new person on board!
Right, so that's that for this update. And remember, our thirst for demos is not yet satisfied!
Tuesday, 12th May by NahkahiiR
Books of recorded history can be rewritten - 00:35
Monday, 13th April by NahkahiiR
This means War - 23:05
I knew that my Easy 100% record in The Pain Maze wasn't very good. I was going to improve it one day but Thomas Stubgaard did it first by beating me by 5 seconds. Before giving the link of the demo I must say that e4m6 is a war zone from now on. Here, watch the 1:32 that Stubby recorded. MUST DOWNLOAD
There were only two single player demos in this update, here comes the second one which is also good indeed. Adam Lewandowski did the Easy Run of perssp2 in 0:27, beating Jozsef Szalontai by 4 seconds. Now that's some monster co-operation. Very nice.
Okay, then we have COOPS, lots of them.
The demolition of old records starts from Vaults of Zin, where Adam Lewandowski and Jason Hochreiter recorded a Nightmare 100% in 0:53, beating Daniel Hansson and Carl Tholin by 10 seconds. Id coops, I love them.
The second id coop took place in The Pain Maze, aka The War Zone. Stubgaard and Mathias Thore used the same route as me and Basil de Vries in the Easy 100%. House cleaning took them 4 seconds less than it did for us. 1:04 stands as the new record.
Adam and Jason are quite hardworking in the quake front these days. But this time they made only 10 demos. One has already been mentioned, let's move on to terra1:
Next, they visited a hotel. First they did an Easy Run in 0:21, tablefiller (single player time 0:23). And moments later, a Easy 100% in 0:24, beating Robert Axelsson and Rickard Axelsson by 3 seconds. I wouldn't want to stay in a crappy hotel like that, especially when Relomy and dingussjr are there with their deadly weapons (yeah I suck at dm).
"AAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaarrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhh!", screamed Robert Axelsson and Rickard Axelsson when they lost the Easy Run to these mad Floridians by 2 seconds. 12 seconds of wonderful action.
Their last map to visit (quickly of course) was sm28. Have a look at their efforts:
The remaining 5 coops are work of two mad men - me and Basil de Vries. 2 months ago we had some fun in msacro. The outcome was 2 tablefillers - Easy 100% in 0:37 and Nightmare Run in 0:12.
Last week we went crazy in royalwar. In the Easy Run we were flying fast and high. After some hard work, we achieved a 0:26, which is a tablefiller (single player time 0:30). Then it was time for some cool action: Nightmare 100% in 0:59, beating Jason Hochreiter and Adam Lewandowski by 5 seconds.
Tchak gets another Valentine's day demo. Slighly late, though. Anyway, the Easy run was done in 12 seconds, another tablefiller (single player time 0:56).
Okay that was it for now, let's record some more cool demos in the future!
Thursday, 2nd April by dex
Some Kind of Update - 23:15
There's more variation in authors than in the last update. Starting with the most important stuff, the master of all things NH, Thomas Stubgaard has made an ID single player demo. The category of the demo is quite obvious (yes, Nightmare 100%!), but what about the map? Well, Stubby took the NahkahiiR's record stealing on The Pain Maze to his heart, and retaliated just now. He improved on Jaakko's nice run by 11 seconds, yielding 1:53. Some work must have went into this demo, and the smoothness is as great as always. MUST DOWNLOAD!!!
Another official episode run was tackled for this update. This time it's everyone's favourite Quake expansion - hipnotic (not that being the favourite is an extraordinary feat, considering the quality of the rogue episode)! Mathias Thore is one dedicated and fast speedrunner, so go watch him beat the hip1m3 Easy Run by Dave Plachetta. The time saved is precisely 1 second, which means this goes down to 0:45. Those are some sexy bunnyhops! Nice work.
It certainly seems Adam Lewandowski is back on the speedrunning track (maybe quite literally, if he beats his 100m time soon). This time he sent up a few single player demos. First off, he reclaimed the hotel Easy 100% from Rickard Axelsson, by 1 second. The time is 0:36. It's a nice demo to be sure, but more impressive is his work on wrld11. Going for the 100% categories, Adam beat Timo Nieminen's Easy 100% 0:42 by 4 seconds (0:38). Then, employing the same route and getting 0:38 here too, he devastated the earlier Nightmare 100% demo by Jaakko Alakopsa. 25 seconds of improvement. Good work!
Jaakko Alakopsa lost quite a few records in this update, but that doesn't stop him from beating other ones. This time, he decided running msacro was in order, and then decided a 100% was in order. And then he picked skill 0, and beat the old record by Philip Chute by 13 seconds. The time is 1:17, and I'd say it's a very nicely executed demo, considering his BAC. No more SP demos from him, but he has a few coops up his sleeve...
Before that, though, the last single player demo. This one is by Laurent Mertens, done on that tchak map with the awfully long name. His category of choice was Nightmare Run, and while there wasn't exactly much competition to beat (it's a tablefiller, folks), some effort certainly went into this 1:15. We want more!
Now, coops! Yeah, there's an id demo around these parts as well, and it's made by Mathias Thore, with Thomas Stubgaard in a supporting role. Vaults of Zin's 2-Player Nightmare Run was an empty hole before they decided to create this magnificent 0:15 (single player time 0:18). I have to say, nice boosting there ;). One can only hope these two take it upon themselves to create a larger number of demos awesome like this one.
The rest of the coops are populated by Jaakko Alakopsa. First he teamed up with Basil de Vries, and went for a few tablefiller coops. The 2-player Easy 100% on dragon took just 47 seconds from start to finish, which is significantly shorter than the single player demo (1:18). However, what benefited the most from 2 players was the tchak 2-player Nightmare Run. The old time of 1:15 was replaced by a quick 0:12. This shows just how important the second player can be even in a pretty straightforward map. Presumably, those two recorded more demos, but Orbs must have found a lost treasure and didn't send the rest of his demos up. We await those demos with open arms!
Lastly, Jaakko was joined by Paul Davies. Those two joined forces to battle against all enemies on e4m7u. Both are shameless tablefillers, the 2-player Easy 100% in 1:15 (SP time 1:58), and the 2-player Nightmare 100% in 1:37 (that one took exactly a minute longer in single). There are some very nice boosts in those two, so check them out.
I think that is all. Till next time, and remember, we need more demos!
Wednesday, 4th March by NahkahiiR
Thank you for your co-operation - 00:24
The first territorial conquest in this update takes place on abw, where Jason Hochreiter and Adam Lewandowski found a new route for the Easy Run, finishing 11 seconds faster than Jaakko Alakopsa and Anders Nordensten. Thus, the new times is 1:09.
The next map that follows is frbdbase. Here they tackled 3 records! No new routes but faster play which is awesome. Daniel Hansson and Jonny Andersson's Easy Run got beaten by 4 seconds, in 0:25. I wonder what the poor mapper thinks about speedrunners. First they play the map couple of hours and then say it sucks. That is so true but this is quite funny thing to be honest. Well, there is something else that sucks. The old record of the Easy 100%. Jason and Adam beat Daniel and Jonny again - this time by 6 seconds - to get a wee 0:29. The last "new" record on this map is Nightmare Run. Daniel Hansson and Daniel Andersson lost their record by one second. The new time stands at 0:26.
Mntbase2 is a less crappy map. At least there's more room to move around, no annoying corners but some doors can be very sticky. Enough with the crap description of the map. Time for some demos. First, a tablefiller of the Easy Run - 0:49. Then - 4 second improvement of the Easy 100%. Jaakko Alakopsa and David Spickermann lost their mntbase2 crowns to a nice looking 0:54.
Hellctle might have been a creepy place if shown to 14th century people in France but today it's not. The Easy Run by Justin Fleck and Evan Wagner almost dates to that era, so old it is. The new set of Americanos did the same run one second faster, finishing in 1:09.
The archive is full of bad maps, discord is one of them. Still, that doesn't stop people from running them. Dingussjr and Relomy did another Easy Run tablefiller, nice boosts in couple of places speeded them to a 0:41 which is one second faster than the single player demo.
The name of perssp2 makes Finns smile. Apparently Americanos didn't think of it the same way. It's crazy, they say! Yet another Easy Run tablefiller... there are so many of them in this update. 22 seconds of joy for your pleasure. I wish you happy watching.
Some nice quad action has been shown in elektra. God bless their long text files so I don't have to write long stories here. The Easy 100% in 0:36 beats Justin Fleck and Evan Wagner by 6 seconds.
The next map might get the prize for the worst map in this update. Sad but true, I also have some records on empire but this not the time to talk about them. In fact Jason and Adam take the shortest way through the map, making 0:18 in both Easy and Nightmare skills, beating Robert & Rickard Axelssons by 1 second.
Now... watch your mouth, or fingers what you type about hhouse! The staff really likes the map so you should speak nicely or we will eat your brains for breakfast. Well, the Easy Run demo is quite good actually, although it beats two staff members, Jaakko Alakopsa and Paul Davies by 5 seconds. Explosive action throughout the map, done in 0:35.
Now this is quite odd. 2 years ago they recorded Nightmare 100% of hunter but later we noticed that the client demo was actually from their EH2 demo. This has been corrected now - 1:58 is available for download in an update once again.
Lfdm4 gets one step closer to being optimized. Jaakko Alakopsa and Basil de Vries' Nightmare Run had to fall this time. 1 second off of the old time. Boosts and bunnies (and the crusher of course) for the win, 0:07 is the new record.
The name of whisper probably tells players to move silently but that's not the case when Jason and Adam are loose! It made monsters mad but they were too weak for these demo making maniacs. Jaakko and Basil lost another record by one second, again. The Easy Run is now a slick 0:24.
That's all about two player coops. James Gray is the new wheel in their tricycle. Now let's see how more or less ugly maps have been completed.
First rather long demos for a madcoop, at least compared to other coops that will be mentioned later. Blister2 sees two new demos which are both tablefillers. Easy and Nightmare 100% have been finished in 0:58 and 1:01, respectively.
Next there is a damn simple yet funny level - elin. These 3 new records are optimized, or are they? Not so sure about the Easy 100% which has been completed in 9 seconds (tablefiller)! 5 seconds in the Easy Run and Nightmare Run are optimized for sure (beats Mathias Thore, Thomas Stubgaard and Thomas Bergendorff by 1 second). All of them look fantastic!
The second to last map is forrit where the updater got lost couple of days ago. How can it be so confusing? These three men are less confusing than the updater though. First they filled some tables in the Easy 100% front, where 0:18 was achieved. Later they recorded the Nightmare 100% as well. According to the text file, everything didn't go as planned. Still they got a nice time which is 0:23.
The last map! It is the best map in this update! It is an oblivion! Thank God they finally remembered to submit all those demos. So here are the last two of them. The Runs of Skill 0 and Skill 3 were both done in 7 seconds! Short bitches. :)
That was really a nice bunch of coops. Next time I would like to see some high quality single player demos. Who's going to record them? YOU? Or me? Hopefully both. =)
Friday, 27th February by NahkahiiR
Keyboarding complete - 17:00
Thursday, 26th February by The Reverend dex
Send, and ye shall receive - 0:35
Welcome to the house of Quake! Here I am, the herald of the new ways on the new maps! We must thank the creators of the demos you so freely give us, for the seven... month period of demo famine is over!
Brothers and sisters, listen carefully to my speech, and rejoice, for we have been blessed with the miracle of a new id demo! Inspired by our Lord, the merciful Thomas Stubgaard has fulfilled the corporeal and spiritual works of mercy and let our eyes behold the demo on Wind Tunnels. Battling 100% of the treacherous monsters and Nightmares from the deepest circles of hell, and he has made haste with his feet without missing his way 6 seconds faster than his own earlier creation (1:51). Bless you for your diligence!
Let Jaakko Alakopsa be a testament to utmost diligence, however! He remains dedicated to his demo-making quest, not falling prey to the sin of sloth. He has stared into the eye of the demon and ventured into the barren realms of Rogue! I hath not witnessed such courage for a long time, and yet, despite all tries by the evil forces, he has emerged victorious from the fight for r2m2 Nightmare 100%. He manages to finish this good act within 2:00, 8 seconds faster than Paul Davies. Verily, verily I say unto thee that this demo is good!
The good 'NahkahiiR' also displays humility which should inspire all of you. He has seen the error of his ways in d3 Nightmare 100% and repented... err, repeated his run, attaining a time eleven seconds faster, 2:33! And this isn't his only act of humbleness, for he has acknowledged his faults and sent in a 1 second self-improvement of msacro Easy Run - 0:14. His work for the sermon is far from over, and ye shall be thankful for this 2run5 Easy 100% 1 second improvement over Mathias Thore. It is true Jaakko had haste in sending the 0:58, however let he without an unpolished demo be the first to cast a stone.
The metaphorical Omega of his demo production - his last demo today - is a demo on tchak. Wherefore hath thou put so many monsters even on the Easy skill, Trinca? Thankfully, Jaakko is fully devoted to fulfilling the deed of killing all the enemies as hastily as he can, and he's the first to do so! He finishes in 5:55, and let his destruction of the 140 enemies be praised all over the the world!
Rui 'Trinca' Neto, the tchak mapmaker truly moves in mysterious ways, as he proved by running his own map, Nightmare 100%. First he has created a 14:09, then a 12:37, and in spite of the length of the demos, thou ought remember thy patience is a virtue; for only through patience great demos are recorded, therefore ye have need for patience.
Another of the new maps we have been graced with, dragon, has been ran by two people. Thou should remember the word of our Lord: "the last shall be first, and the first last.". And praise the Lord, for his writing is fulfilling on our very eyes. For you Doubting Thomases out there, here's the testimony to that: a 2 second improvement of Jaakko Alakopsa's Nightmare Run by Jonathan Lenhardt. He has sent his 0:23 later than Jaakko, and yet he's the one to take the first place in the tables!
Besides that, the newly converted to Quake Philip Chute has created a few runs on this map. His piety to SDAQuake shows in the Easy 100% in 1:18, beating Flavio Quadros himself by 2 seconds, and in the Nightmare 100% 1:56, a huge (39 second) improvement to his own, earlier deeds.
His devotion doesn't end there. He also put forth efforts on msacro, efforts of great importance, no less. The first to have ventured to the lands of Easy 100%, he emerged with a 1:30. Similarly, the other 100% demo - Nightmare - has also filled an empty space within the tables. 2:20 is the time. And finally, seeking to better himself, he made a 3-second self-improvement in the Nightmare Run - yielding a final time of 0:21. Keep up the good deeds, and may I welcome you to the flock of Quake speedrunners!
I would be delighted to show you all some coop footage, but alas, none of you kept to the second greatest commandment: One should love one's neighbour as one would love oneself! And with that I leave you, the good people of SDAQuake! May you fill the inbox with demos, and may I have to bring out another sermon soon. Farewell!
Monday, 16th February by NahkahiiR
Who needs mice? - 19:15
Friday, 13th February by NahkahiiR
dex is a lazy bum - 00:05
Dragon turned out to be a very popular level, especially the Easy Run. Let's start with a NEW PLAYER - Philip Chute recorded a 1:15, using the intended route. It's nice to watch speedruns without crazy bunnies once in a while. Brings back the old times. Those times are gone, though. The f****** fast Brazilian, Flavio Quadros took more or less the same route and did a 0:49, looking good, huh? Ok.. there is a trick, it's an ogre grenade jump that makes the run faster. I had done this 0:23 around time when the map was released so I submitted it now and told about it to Flavio who quickly beat me with better ogj strategy and better bunnies, making me embarrassed with a nice 0:20. Now who's gonna beat that? Not me... I'm not that fast.
Dragon force isn't over yet, Philip took the Easy 100% in his claws and didn't release it until the time was down to 1:50. Did he keep it? No... it was Flavio again who stole his record, clocking it half a minute faster - so 1:20 will stay for a while.
Too bad Philip had visible triggers in his Nightmare Run demo so it could not be accepted. I submitted a 0:25 which doesn't look quite optimal, somebody improve it please. :)
In the Nightmare 100% category there wasn't much competition for Philip who managed to keep one record in this map. Funny endeavours, where 155 seconds were used.
Time for some acrobatics, on the "arena" of msacro. Basil de Vries showed the way how to move quickly and did the Easy Run in 16 seconds. I thought - screw the key, and took a faster route and jumped over the building, but my wrist couldn't stand the curl in the end so only 1 second was shaved off in this 0:15.
Philip took a safer approach on the Nightmare Run and didn't even touch the rocket launcher. Dog boosts (unintended I bet :)) speeded him to a 0:24.
Tchak saw only one demo but that's not a bad one. In fact Flavio's Easy Run makes me cry. His +forward tapping bunnies are so fast that it makes me look like a sloth. Lazy bums, step aside, when GinKo runs and finishes the map in 0:56.
No more demos on the new maps, time for old ones. In the realms of d5 there was some air for a Nightmare 100% improvement. I beat my old time by 16 seconds and finished in 1:40. My next target was once again, an improvement of my old record in d7. This time the Nightmare Run got a serious beating, 21 seconds faster than the old demo! New time stands at 0:42 which is even faster than the Easy Run. My last sp demo in this update took place in the awesomeness of cjhsp1. A wonderful map to run, and guess it... I beat my old record by 69 seconds! The 5:51 looks pretty good, doesn't it?
The first-demo-of-the-year award went to Dmitry Dementjev. He is well known as a fast runner, and this Easy Run through hdn doesn't make an exception. Super sweet boosts made him one second faster than Connor Fitzgerald. Don't just stand there, download the 17 seconds lasting demo and enjoy. RECOMMENDED!
That's all... of sp demos! We have some nice coops left for you! 4 demos of nice actions offered by me and Basil in the following order:
Sunday, 8th February by NahkahiiR
Quadruple of Fun - 19:57
Wednesday, 28th January by NahkahiiR
Who won and what? - 16:18
Sunday, 11th January by NahkahiiR
Wut's happening? - 16:35
Saturday, 3rd January by dex
Is someone operating a pneumatic drill here? - 0:36
Almost every demo has Jaakko 'Demo Machine' Alakopsa in it, so let's just get the only one he doesn't participate in out of the way. And it's a good one, you know. Mathias Thore gave us a Christmas gift (which you get to see a bit late), and he did an Easy Run of nesp10. He beat Anders Nordensten by 1 second, getting a 0:08. And if that's not OPTIMAL, I'd like to see what is. Congratulations Mathias, awesome (as usual) demo and awesome (as usual) smoothness! Obviously MUST DOWNLOAD!
So, time to enter the domain of the fierce Quake monster NahkahiiR. He got a nice bunch of SP demos. He tackled the lovely ogitrev map, specifically Easy 100%, which was held by me. The bastard. He got a 1:13, beating me by 8 seconds. The bastard. The quad boosts make me sea-sick, so let's move on to the next demos.
Some e3m5rmx demos, specifically. Jaakko took a stab at the Easy Run, beating Laurent Mertens by 82 seconds for a final time of 0:54. Nice one (my poor stomach), a few nice tricks in that demo. 'The bastard' also tackled the Easy 100%, and my stomach is thankful this is a sub-optimal tablefiller. Why does killing enemies have to be so loud, though? Anyway, NahkahiiR got a 3:24, taking the intended route.
Another SP demo by him is Easy 100% on pb2. He certainly picked a difficult person to beat - Thomas Bergendorff - but he managed to get the time down by 2 seconds, getting the job done in 125 seconds. Really good run (my poor head), some work went into making this. Go watch, even if you're hung over, like... certain SDAQuake staff members.
Finally, we have a marathon from Nahk (who else), it's an Easy 100% of the dmsp episode. Jaakko battled against huge randomness and against the previous record holder, George Dickeson. He managed to improve the previous time by 5 seconds, yielding a 4:58. Nicely done.
Time for coops, children. All of the coops and madcoops obviously have Jaakko J in them. The most important one is definitely Ziggurat Vertigo Normal Gravity 2-Player Nightmare 100%. Now that's a long category name, isn't it? J teamed up with Ingmar Poerner for that one, and they got a 0:53, beating Jonny Andersson and Daniel Andersson by 2 seconds.
Then J joined Basil de Vries on the quest to beat the bbelief7 2-Player Nightmare 100% by Pif and Luc de Mestre. They managed a 20 second improvement, and the final time is 1:11. Killing the Big Fat Red Bastard (it's a pet name) can be a pain, good work.
After those two coops J got drunk, and if you're drunk and teaming up for coop, why not get another drunk to join you? So, I was the one who joined NahkahiiR in his not-so-sober running. We did a e2m1rmx Drunken 2-Player Easy 100% in 1:12, which beats the previous record by NahkahiiR and Lag.Com by a single second.
Finally, two madcoops. Both on bbelief7, the first one is a 3-Player Easy 100% by J, Basil de Vries and Paul Davies, beating Mattias Berggren, Gunnar Rydberg and Fredrik Egerstad by 7 seconds (the time is 0:20 by the way). Really nice. Then, those three were joined by My Sober And Not Hung Over Self, and we did a 4-Player Nightmare 100% in 0:36, beating nobody since that's a tablefiller. 2-player time: 1:11.
So, that's that. Oh, we have a surprise coming around in the following few weeks, so stay tuned.
Tuesday, 18th November by NahkahiiR
Elders and youngsters in action - 14:47
Thomas Stubgaard has returned to The Elder God Shrine! He won't leave monsters alone (because he is one big Danish monster himself) and finished the Nightmare 100% in 3:46, beating himself by one second, again. Totally astonishing control throughout the map! Fiend kills can't get much cleaner than this. MUST DOWNLOAD
It's awesome that new routes can still be found on the original maps. And this one is a HUGE timesaver. I ran through The Nameless City, killing every monster and finding every secret on Nightmare skill, and got a 4:03, one full minute faster than Thomas Stubgaard. Not as optimal looking as Stubby's e4m3 NH, but nevertheless another MUST DOWNLOAD.
The only custom episode demo was done by Basil de Vries. His adventures in d6 Nightmare Run include a new trick: double ogre grenadejump + fiend push!!! After this trick he took a noob way to finish the map so the final time is 0:54, beating David Spickermann by 4 seconds.
Then to the custom map demos:
Saturday, 25th October by NahkahiiR
Id cooked in many ways - 12:55
Chefs at SDA don't serve you any salads this time but go straight to the main dish, 5 id records! The master of space clearing, Thomas Stubgaard amazes us how fast zombies can be telefragged in The Tomb of Terror. Easy 100% fell down to 7:37, 33 seconds faster than his own previous demo. Why not do the same in Nightmare? Hell yeah! Again Thomas shows how to bore monsters to death with this neat 8:58, 25 seconds faster than himself.
Thomas tightens his grip of the total ownage of The Haunted Halls by a Nightmare 100%. A total of 2 seconds were shaved off by this maniac. I believe Stubby has to keep lights on at night because the darkness is afraid of his axe. The new time stands at 1:52.
The fourth id record by the same man in this update was recorded on The Elder God Shrine. Because of the nature of map demos on it are always very entertaining. Why did iD think that player would pass the fiend spawning place 8 times? The Lord of Nightmare 100%'s squeezed 1 second off of his previous demo, ending at 3:47 thus equalling the Qd100qst demo. Is this the second Nightmare 100% on an id map to be optimized?
Jaakko Alakopsa continued his endeavours in The Pain Maze, challenging the spawny map again. By turning the route upside down, he was 2 seconds faster than Connor Fitzgerald. The new time of the Easy 100% is now 1:37.
Okay, then to the new maps, a large bunch of tablefillers were done in the following order:
That's all folks, keep more demos coming!Thursday, 25th September by dex
Quake: Reloaded - 22:55
Saturday, 13th September by dex
Get me 9 milligrams of demos, stat! - 1:45
It seems as if everyone took a break from speedrunning lately - very few demos in the inbox, and consequently, little reason to update. I actually considered "mailbox doesn't work right" as an explanation for the low number of demos. While I doubt that's the case, if you sent in a demo and it didn't end up in this update, give me a nod on IRC and resend the demo, alright?
Now, to the update itself. 9 demos over the period of several weeks is definitely not formidable, but if the old saying is to be believed, 'quality, not quantity'. And you know what? Old sayings seem to have a tendency to be true. I mean, sure, we only have 9 demos... but they're good. Really good. Really original too. Keeping with the age old tradition, the most important matters first...
...an ID demo! That's right, another Nightmare 100% was blown away. The map that was graced with this demo is The Pain Maze. What might seem slightly unusual is the person doing that - it's not Stubgaard. The insane Finnish runner Jaakko Alakopsa found a few cool tricks, conjured a little bit of magic and actually spent more than 30 minutes making a demo. The result is a great 2:04, beating Stubby by 14 seconds, which should tell you how much quality has been squeezed into the demo. MUST DOWNLOAD, if only for the fact it's the most important demo in the first update for over a month. It's really worth watching.
The one person that seems untouched by the coma that struck SDA is Basil de Vries. Yes, the misspelling and missubmitting master is definitely still on track. He took up Runner's Delight, with unrestricted bunnies (as if to say 'I can bunny!'). First he took on rd1m2b Nightmare Run, which he finished in 39 seconds. There was no run on that place till he tried, but the restricted bunny time was 0:51. Afterwards, he decided to give rd1m3b a spin on Easy difficulty. He killed all monsters and took all secrets in 1:33. Again, no run on that category yet, but the restricted bunny time is 1:44. Those demos are quite entertaining. Orber also submitted a mara on some episode or other, but it was slower than the run already in place.
Time for some digs01 running, d6's Nightmare Run by Laurent Mertens has been improved by David Spickermann. Contrary to what he'd like you to believe, he doesn't suck nearly as much as he likes to say he does. This 7 second improvement for a total time of 58 seconds should be enough to prove that. Also, that is the longest link to a demo I have ever made ;).
That's about it for the single player demos. The rest of the update is coops, and so it happens that 2 people living in New Zealand have decided to make a mini-speedcon with a lot of drinking thrown into the mix. Tim Doherty and Michael Hudson decided their life was too funny and cool and they tried some rogue episode running to remind them of all the bad stuff. r1m7 is a bearable map, so they tried that first, getting a 2-Player Easy 100% in 1:52. That beats an old effort by Radix and Morfans by 6 seconds. After doing this and realising what they have just played, they apparently developed a death wish. And they did 2 COOP MARAS OF ROGUE!! Holy shit!
First went doe1, presumably because it doesn't involve running r2m1. 2-Player Easy 100% again. And since nobody was mad enough to try something as insane as a coop mara of rogue, it's a tablefiller. The single player time is 20 minutes and then some, and the new, fresh and dandy time for the coop category is 14:54. After doing this, the two of them decided to do a mara that makes me doubt their mental health, doe2. That means running r2m1, folks! They again did a 2-Player Easy 100%, which is not surprising considering running a Nightmare 100% coop mara of this episode would be almost certain death. Anyway, those two individuals have finished this evil episode in 21:10, which is a tablefiller (single player time 23:38). Regrettably, Tim didn't send in any comments, but hey, they don't let people have internet connections in a mental institute. Those two are mad, and in the good sense of the word. Hats off! You should download this, if only to see them tackle something that hard to do :).
All of the demos in this update so far were on an episode, and this one's no exception. Terra is a great episode for sure, and terra1 is a very fun map. So, Jaakko Alakopsa, Paul Davies and Me teamed up for some random 3-Player Easy 100% action. We ended up using the 'wait 27 eternities for a few leftover monsters to die' trick, which is a little more entertaining to watch than the wait in a single player demo, thanks to our silly chatter. Oh yeah, the time is 0:49 (2 player time is 1 minute flat).
Lastly, as if to make an update with 2 rogue maras and an id record even more mad than it is, we have a madcoop! And it's mad alright. It's a 6-Player Nightmare 100% of The Palace of Hate, the first madcoop that large in 7 years. I told you, quality stuff! The team consisting of Jaakko Alakopsa, Basil de Vries, Paul Davies, Michael Hudson, Karol Urbanski and David Spickermann finished this map 14 seconds faster than 5 players, in 1:21. There's a bunch of good shooting, a few more or less intentional boosts, a lot of monster killing, some silly axe to ass action, some clever route planning, and as with every madcoop so diverse, a lot of lag (and not only of the Lag.Com kind). Download this, it's worth it!
Till next time. I hope I won't need to wait that long to update again.
Sunday, 3rd August by dex & Co.
420 coop erryday - 23:28
Saturday, 19th July by dex
"Small" update - 3:35
Finally, something budged in the Quake speedrunning world. I am very pleasantly surprised to have to do an update mere 10 days after the last one. The update is also filled with coop stuff, which seems to be the normal thing these days.
Let's start with Single Player demos. There are only five of them, and two belong to our gibberish spouting master Basil de Vries. Both are made on the lovely dazsp2c map. Basil decided to take both 100% records from Nolan Pflug, and his Easy 100% is 5 seconds faster than the old record - 1:20. Not content with taking down a bunch of monsters on Easy, he changed the skill variable to a more demanding '3', and then did a Nightmare 100% in one hundred and twelve seconds, whopping 20 seconds faster than Nolan. Nicely done, Orbs.
Another of the SP demos is a creation by the gibberish apprentice, Rutger Baks. His map and category of choice was the Easy 100% on dm1m2. Killing every enemy and finding every secret there took him 1:36, which is 3 seconds faster than Justin Fleck. However, it still wasn't good enough for him, and surely enough he improved it further, by 2 seconds, to achieve the final time of 1:34. Quite a great run!
The last SP demo is a courtesy of Laurent Mertens. He did a Nightmare 100% on ssnw, which took him 1 minute and 17 seconds. It's a self-improvement by 6 seconds, and a good watch as well.
That ends the 'lonely' production of this update; the rest of it is coops. And I'm very happy to announce that they aren't entirely done by the 'old crew'. We have a newbie on board, his name is Mikko Ylätalo and he's Nahk's buddy. I tell you, it's a great thing to get a new, fresh runner these days, and it's an even better thing to have such a good player enter the show. His demos show a lot of skill and potential, and I hope he stays for a while. If an old saying is to be believed, a picture is worth a thousand words. So, here comes a huge collection of 72000 words per second, by Jaakko Alakopsa and Mikko Ylätalo:
That was some good running, right? Let's hope Mikko sticks around, because he's great!
The next two demos are a creation by the team consisting of Rutger Baks and Basil de Vries. This duo decided to beat two de Mestre coops. The first one is a deja 2-player Easy 100% in 0:53, which is 4 seconds faster than the old run by Pif and Luc. The second demo is also a 2-player Easy 100%, this time on the sewer map ssnw. They finish in 0:32, which is 14 seconds faster than the coop by Pif and Luc.
A few days before doing those they decided to let Laurent Mertens tag along for the ride. Still on ssnw, the team consisting of Basil, Rutger and Laurent did a 3-player Easy 100% tablefiller in 0:33. Turned out to be beaten by the 2-player run-through later, which is a shame. :)
As an icing on the cake, here comes the maddest of madcoops. This is not only because of the number of people involved - an impressive 5 players - but also because of the people involved themselves. It's hard to find a group less mentally stable than the collective of Jaakko Alakopsa, Basil de Vries, Rutger Baks, Michael Hudson and Me. We also wanted Mikko for this one, but unfortunately technical problems made him drop out :(. Still, this 5-player Easy 100% on Wind Tunnels in 45 seconds is the first madcoop done by over 4 runners since 2006. It's also a tablefiller - the 3-player time is 0:49.
And with that, I bid you good night. Keep the inbox full.
Wednesday, 9th July by NahkahiiR
Coop overflow - 23:21
Important matters first, Thomas Stubgaard seems to be the only human recording iD single player demos these days. At least he knows how to be entertaining and amazes us with a 4 second improvement to his own Nightmare 100% record on Satan's Dark Delight. The new time stands at 1:20. MUST DOWNLOAD!!!
The mad Dane didn't stop there. He tightens the grip of his Total Ownage of The Haunted Halls by recording a Nightmare Run through the hellish corridors filled by bloody ogres. Skipping the fiend he saves 4 seconds again to get a 0:48. MUST DOWNLOAD!!!
The only episode run of this update was done by Basil de Vries. He knows the depths of dm2sp like his own pockets and finished the Nightmare 100% in 1:01, beating himself by 14 seconds.
Laurent Mertens set a new record time on cjhsp1. The Easy 100% was an empty hole in the tables until Laurent came to challenge all the monsters with a 8:28. For a time, that was good. Then I decided to submit my older but faster demo that wasn't even meant to end up here. Cleaning the map of monsters took 7 minutes, beating Laurent by 88 seconds. The time doesn't seem optimal as both of us had trouble finding the silver door. :)
The other one of active Dutchies, Rutger Baks found a way to Run fast through czg_moon. It wasn't such a Nightmare to him because the time he got is 5 seconds faster than what Daniel Andersson spent long time ago. 0:32 stands as the new record.
Then we got almost ancient demo from Flavio Quadros. He saw that Rutger had conquered the Nightmare Run of deja. Flavio fought back with a 0:31, beating Rutger by 1 second.
Nightmare Runs have been popular recently. Rutger does another one of them in good style on elden1 in 0:13, beating Fabian Kollakowski's almost 9 years old record by 1 second.
Last month a drunken Pole filled the Nightmare 100% hole of sm135_ankh. Some time later another - but sober Pole, Damian Kulot shaved 36 seconds off of Karol Urbanski's demo to get a 1:27. That wasn't the end of action on Damian's map. Basil gave monsters a thorough beating and exited the level in 1:02, 25 seconds faster than Damian.
Laurent thought his own Nightmare 100% of ssnw wasn't good enough so he went and recorded a better demo - 1:23, 22 seconds faster than himself.
Monday, 23rd June by Aspokala
Little pack of demos - 21:32
The "Demo Machine" title of this update goes to Dmitry Demetjev with 4 demos! Great rocket launcher usage in all of them:
Nothing can separate Poles and beer in the summer. Karol Urbanski knew that while exploring Sm135_Ankh after many many beers. The Nightmare 100% endeavour was finished in 123 seconds, new to the tables. Holy cow, that was entertaining.
The last single player demo in this update belongs to Laurent Mertens. The commando came to irc, acquired the info of empty holes, quit irc and recorded a Nightmare 100% on Ssnw. 1:45 later he became the proud owner of the new (and crappy) tablefiller.
One coop was done and it's an id coop by two Scandinavians: Thomas Stubgaard and Mathias Thore. After a little drink in Mandel's end, The Haunted Halls didn't feel too frightening so it was time to record the Easy Run in 0:38, beating Thomas & Mads-Peter Stubgaard by 1 second.
That's all now, thanks for sending demos and keep them coming.
Friday, 30th May by dex
Ordinary routine - 0:15
8th July 2034, inside an APC, on the surface of the newly colonised planet LB-223, 0200 GMT:
A commander speaks to a bunch of marine soldiers:
- Alright, bastards. Since the ETA at the disembark place is less than a quarter of an hour, I think it's a good moment to fill you in with the details of our mission. We're gonna perform a pretty routine assignment. We have to find and deal with a certain individual. It would be the best if we get him alive.
- And who exactly is that 'certain individual', sir?
- The quite famous thief going by the name Thomas Stubgaard, who lately...
- What, him?! I thought he disappeared, stopped doing heists!
- So did most people, soldier. He was inactive for a long time. A bunch of time ago he broke into the 'Azure Agony' bank on LB, just yesterday he went for a bigger haul: The Underearth bank!
- The man has more balls than brains. How the hell did he manage to escape?
- He got out of the bank in quite a record time, going through the tunnels. That day was quite a Nightmare for the guards, like 100% of them were killed while he was escaping. Apparently it took him just 2:17 to get the heist done completely alone, the last time he needed 22 seconds more.
- He is quite insane, I thought the bank would make the defences better after his last spectacular heist. Why doesn't the police deal with it, though?
- They almost apprehended him, but he probably had a few friends with him, and thanks to that he destroyed the entire police force in the area. That's why police requested help from the military.
- So, what's the rough plan?
- They were last seen departing south, into the mostly uncharted jungle. We'll get as far as we can with an APC, and then we'll pursue Stubgaard and his buddies on foot from there. We should stick close, that will help us avoid surprises in unknown terrain.
- Any dangers other than the gang we're looking for?
- Maybe a bit of fauna, but that's it.
- Sir, are you sure? I heard stories about some demons in the souther...
- Don't let those silly stories get to you, they are just a load of wash! We're facing a purely human threat here, so don't worry. And please, don't call me 'sir'. Now, let's rock & roll!
And so, the marine team disembarks from the APC and starts the search for the elusive Stubgaard's gang.
- I think I heard something!
- Loose formation, team! From where, Collins?
- Around there - said Collins, as he pointed towards extensive foliage a few metres away from them. And then, the marines saw a figure quickly running away! The commander instantly recognised the threat - it was a wanted criminal, Tom Nguyen. He started escaping frantically, going into the little known parts of the jungle...
The place he chose for his escape was called cjhsp1. To the horror of his pursuers, the place was filled with demonic monsters. It seemed as if the superstitions of the folk were true in the end. However, Tom didn't really mind monsters, in fact they helped him get away faster. It was quite an Easy Run for him, and in 1:47 he was already too far away for the marines to catch him. The commander seemed to recall info about a great adventurer Laurent Mertens exploring this place as much as 44 seconds longer. Without any trace of 'sshplur' to be found, the commander decided to continue on with the mission.
Minutes later, they noticed yet another shadowy figure in the dark. Without much consideration, they started pursuing Rutger Baks, known for his fast legs and quick escape routes. This time, his route of choice was in a place very familiar to everyone, filling the marine commander with a feeling of deja vu. The place was literally crawling with monster spawns straight from Nightmares, but Rutger Ran without any regard for that. In as little as 0:32 (8 seconds faster than Laurent the Adventurer), he entered a weird temple. Upon entering it and noticing the floor is above his head, the commander recognised he was inside Ogitrev temple. Rutger again Ran away and avoided all kinds of Nightmare demons, being the first person to come through the temple unscathed, in 0:39. After this display of skill, he entered a drained sewer called ssnw. He Ran the same exact way, evading Nightmares all the time. After 0:23, he lost the marine team chasing him. (Laurent explored the place 1 second slower)
The commander wanted to divide his team into search parties. However, before he could even start, he saw another man running in the same place, the same way as Rutger earlier. This man was none other than Jaakko Alakopsa, the criminal who made running away his artform. Rutger did not stand the comparison with him - Jaakko managed to run through that sewer in 0:20, 3 seconds faster. The path lead him to another complex sewer called sewage. He decided to play around this place extensively. He finished the Easy Run-away in as little as 1:53. Then he again Ran as fast as possible, except with more monsters around! 2:40 was the amount of time this took him. Then, he decided to kill each and every one of those Nightmares, 100% of them. After 5:28, the sewer seemed clear, and yet enemies appeared again, in smaller quantities. Killing 100% of them was way too Easy for Jaakko, who did it in 3:44 (3, 7, 56 and 10 seconds faster than another known explorer, Thomas Bergendorff).
The marine team was clearly not up to par with him, and only the commander and Collins were still on Jaakko's track. He was just too fast for them, and he got bored with running around in dirty sewage, so he decided to move on to classier environment. aow was the place he picked for his endeavours. First he did a bit of Nightmare Running there, and was the first known individual to survive that! It took him just 15 seconds. He liked it so much he actually risked getting caught, and got through it again, this time killing 100% of the Easy to kill monsters, in 0:44.
So close to getting caught, he decided it was time to move on. First, he went through desout place, hoping he could shake off the pursuers there. However, he got a bit carried away and killed each and every one of the Nightmarish monsters, which took him 1:41, 6 seconds faster than the last individual to cross here, Marlo Galinski. This wasn't nearly enough to leave Collins and his commander behind. Jaakko moved on through the already visited cjhsp1. Again, he took time killing all the monsters as hard to beat as in Nightmares, thinking that the two people chasing him didn't know the place. In 9:01, the monsters were eradicated, but to Jaakko's surprise his enemies were still on his tail. So, he crossed the land of xnq1002. The enemies here were very Easy to kill, so Jaakko again decided to kill all of them, and check all of the secrets out. 18 seconds faster than the great explorer Laurent Mertens, he finished in 3:12. He still failed to shake off his enemies.
He then entered a very weird temple, and both the pursuers had a feeling that they saw this place today already. Deja vu. Jaakko killed all the monsters from Nightmares on his way, and it seemed as if his 2:10 would be unbeatable, and his pursuers would have to accept defeat...
Then, Collins spoke: - He's making fun of us!
- I'm going after him alone! - the commander replied.
- You have no hope of catching him in your old age, sir!
- I hate official titles, I told you! Call me Richard Skidmore, damnit!
The commander then started a frantic chase, killing all the monsters that mysteriously reappeared in the meantime. And, to both Jaakko's and Collins' amazement, he was insanely fast: 2:02, 8 seconds faster. Thanks to that, he managed to catch the master of running away, Jaakko Alakopsa!
Now, he just needs to transport Jaakko to prison...
Wednesday, 14h May by Aspokala
Stolen flock of sheep - 11:24
This is a story of a squatter. Today he will go to the pastureland with his sheep as he does every day. It's a sunny, beatiful morning. The sun had just risen above the mountains and now he's standing next to a pine watching the flock eating grass on hilly terrain. He didn't have enough of sleep last night so he lays down under the tree and takes a short nap. The sheep won't go anywhere, he believes...
Zzzz... for half an hour.
*YAAAWNNN* "Oh where am I, oh yeah, I fell asleep for a while. But... where are the sheep?!! I shouldn't have fallen asleep! I must go look where they could have gone." He sees somebody sitting on a bridge nearby and decides to go ask him. When he approaches the bridge, he's startled to see that the fellow is not human. It is a big, old gnome. He asks carefully: "Excuse me, have you seen any sheep wandering nearby? I fell asleep under a tree and when I woke up, all of them were gone." The gnome looked at him and replied: "I stole them! I need to sacrifice to the gods and those sheep were good for that purpose." The farmer was shocked but pulled himself together and asked: "Is there anything else that you could sacrifice? These sheep are my life." The gnome sank into its thoughts, sighed and said: "There is one other way, the magical herbs that grow in distant parts of this land. I am too old to travel and fight against monsters that eat those herbs. I give you one day to find them before I have to do the sacrifice."
The farmer started thinking: "I could help that gnome to find herbs. I will people from town for some monster hunting!"
He found the gang of seven brave runners: Michael Hudson, Jaakko Alakopsa, Laurent Mertens, Rutger Baks, Karol Urbanski, Pif de Mestre and Luc de Mestre.
The bunch arrives to a strange cave, called Zer1m7. The first herbalist Michael Hudson takes the job and Runs straight to the Nightmarish fortress ahead from the cave. He finds a rocket laucher and does precise boosts across large open areas, finishing in 2:26 (beating himself by 16 seconds). The herb Michael found is a catnip.
The second place they pass is Bast, a church filled with ugly monsters. Jaakko Alakopsa jumps into the water, waits for zombies to walk away from the church roof and does an Easy 100% through the place. He finds a basilica from the back of the church but monsters gather around him. He has to run a Nightmare 100%. All that running back and forth makes him tired, and this second run takes much longer. His times are 3:11 and 6:35 (beating Thomas Stubgaard by 19 seconds and -98 seconds).
They approach a large mansion called Cjhsp1. Laurent Mertens shows up and Easily Runs performing nice grenade & rocket jumps inside the huge place. At 2:31 (tablefiller) he jumps through an exit and finds himself from a hidden place: Deja. It looks familiar and without problems Laurent does a Nightmare Run in 40 seconds! (tablefiller). He walks back with some cinnamon.
Still near mountains, the group sees a high tower: Ftfs100b. Jaakko finds the tower familiar and cleans the tower of monsters. The Nightmare 100% is completed in 1:16 (beating himself by 16 seconds). From the top he brings a bag of black pepper.
As Rutger Baks can't wait for others and does Easy and Nightmare Runs through Hellvill, boosting around with grenades in fast style - 0:24 and 0:25 (beating Thomas Bergendorff by 1 second in both runs).
After the mountain has been crossed, they see some kind of research center, Ogitrev, which appears to study gravity. Karol Urbanski likes the idea of low gravity and goes flying like a bird, meanwhile doing an Easy 100% in 1:21 (tablefiller). Once all monsters are down or gibbed, he catches some chamomile from the ground and runs back to his friends.
In the same facility there seems to be a torrid sewage system, "Ssnw" where a nettle is having foothold. Laurent finds a rocket launcher from the bottom of the sewage and fights his way through the area with many rocket jumps finishing in 24 seconds (tablefiller). The road from that place leads to another canyon, better known as Xnq1002. It is said that a strong guardian protects a blue lotus flower which has magical powers. Laurent did not have enough of running around in the sewage system so he goes and completes an Easy 100%, killing the guardian and capturing the herb in 3:30 (beating himself by 26 seconds).
It's almost time for going back to the gnome but there are still two places that must be visited. The first one of them is D6, where chamomile grows in large quantities. While others are already tired - Pif de Mestre and Luc de Mestre - the famous brothers team up to do an Easy 100% and Pif takes a long time collecting chamomile at the exit of the area and finally finishes in 1:37 (tablefiller, single player time 2:11). The last monster hiding place is Watrways where Pif and Luc continue their teamwork. First they do an Easy 100% thinking that the journey is finally over and while looking for the herb of this place, monsters organize again but that's a futile attempt trying to destroy de Mestre clan so they run back to the action and do a Nightmare 100%. Co-operation resulted as very quick clearings of the area: 17 and 26 seconds (tablefillers, single player times 0:25 and 0:33)! Finally they find the last herb - peppermint.
The group of brave runners and the farmer return to the bridge where the gnome is waiting. "You were so quick" says the gnome and continues "Thank you for the herbs. Our gods prefer them instead of sheep but as I am so old, I can't travel that far and your sheep were so easy to steal for the sacrifice. Come to my house, I reward you with lots of wine that you humans praise so much." The group of tired runners accepted the reward and started drinking and singing so loud that the sheep ran away scared of the noise and the farmer had hard time bringing them back home.